Geography

At St Bonaventure’s the Geography department wants to inspire students to develop a lifelong desire to ask questions about the world around us and the part we all have to play in it.

We aim to promote respect and to help young people to develop their moral compass. We are keen to develop an understanding of the shared values which unite us all. This will result in excellent behaviour for learning in all Geography lessons.

We seek to foster a sense of wonder as well as to motivate students to investigate a complex and dynamically changing world in order to become global citizens. Studying geography enables students to explore their own place in the world by studying people and places from the past, present and future and at all scales from the personal to the global.

We strive to encourage our students to rise to the challenges our world faces and to take responsibility for the sustainability of our planet.

We will develop engaged citizens who will enthusiastically contribute to the big society and understand their place within it because they embrace British values.

Geography is heavily focused on people and their relationships and as such we are well placed to contribute to students’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education. SMSC will be carefully embedded in our curriculum to develop students as well rounded individuals who are proud of their heritage and contribute positively to our society.

As a staff we will be challenged in the Geography department to ask questions about what we teach and to reflect carefully on our practice. This will ensure we consider how we deliver content alongside what we deliver. By doing this we will offer a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum which provides practical, enquiry based approaches to learning that stimulate student’s enthusiasm and helps to bring Geography to life.

Staffing

S.Purdue – Curriculum Leader

S.Morrice – Assistant Curriculum Leader

S.Duphey – Teacher of Geography (KS3 and KS4)

G.Murray – Teacher of KS3 Geography

G.Hayes – Teacher of KS3 Geography

M. Nair – Teacher of KS3 Geography

KS3 Geography

The curriculum followed at KS3 (years 7-9) is broad and balanced in Geography, encompassing a wide range of human, physical and environmental geographical issues. These are outlined for each year group below:

The exam specification followed at GCSE Geography is Edexcel B. This is made up of three components. Component 1 considers world wide geographical issues, component 2 considers UK scale issues and component 3 is a synoptic decision making component. 2 pieces of fieldwork (one about urban environments and another about river environments) are integral to the course.

The assessment for this course is three exams (one for each component) which are all 1 hour and 30 minutes in length.

Year 10

Term

HT1

HT2

HT3

HT4

HT5

HT6

Topic

Development Dynamics

UK’s evolving physical landscape

Fieldwork investigation – Rivers

Challenges of an urbanised world

Hazardous Earth

End of year revision and recap

Year 11

Term

HT1

HT2

HT3

HT4

HT5

HT6

Topic

The UK’s evolving human landscape

Fieldwork: Local area study

Synoptic units: People and the Biosphere

Synoptic units:

Forests under threat and consuming resources

Revision and Exams

Revision and Exams

Suggested supporting resources:

Be careful to use the curriculum map above and only revise the necessary topics from the sites below!

The exam specification followed at A Level Geography is Edexcel. Students study a range of physical topics (Tectonics, Coastal Processes, The Carbon Cycle and The Water Cycle) and human topics (Globalisation, Regenerating Places, Superpowers and Migration, Identity and Sovereignty) during Year 12 and Year 13. Students are required to complete four days of fieldwork: two days of physical fieldwork at local coastal locations and two days of human fieldwork at the Isle of Dogs and Stratford. From this, students will complete an ‘Independent Investigation’ into a topic of their own choosing from the Regenerating Places and Coastal Processes topic. This is worth 20% of their final A Level grade.

In addition to the Independent Investigation, the assessment for this course is three exams which,as well as the Physical and Human papers, includes a Synoptic paper which will examine students ability to make links between multiple topics studied throughout their A Level.